“They’re not rebels, they’re all a bunch of conformists.”
Back in high school, my English teacher made this observation about some of our friends as they walked by his classroom one day. “The Mohawks and piercings… the boots, the technicolor hair and makeup… it’s like a little crowd of followers.”
I flash-backed to this while listening to REBEL, Lecrae’s third offering, courtesy of Reach Records+Cross Movement Records.
Rebel is a thoroughly realized, rollercoaster of a concept album.
From jump, Rebel introduces an interesting, if not entirely original
concept: Christianity as the ultimate rebellion, faith as
counterculture.
In the Rebel Intro 'crea spits: “Christ rebelled by shunning the culture—eating with the sinners, giving pharises ulcers; he never got married he was broke plus homeless… yeah, that’s the God I roll with.”
Over the next 15 tracks, Rebel wages a raucous lyrical assault against every emotion and worldly struggle imaginable—fear and self-doubt, sloth and gluttony, materialism, lust, love, image, false gods, beauty standards, and religious tradition.
Now if Lecrae were a lesser artist, Rebel would be a well- meaning but kinda annoying album. Fortunately, Lecrae is a topnotch emcee that’s more than adept at melding crowd rocking beats with thoroughly thought-provoking bars.In fact, Rebel's production is easily more danceable, more speaker shaking and more club-thumping that 95% of what's out now.
But where Lecrae shines is on passionate tracks where he lays out specifics of everyday life: 
"Got Paper" is a prime example. The hook says "You Got money / You
got Paper ... So what who cares?! You Got Money / You got Paper
... So What I got Jesus Baby!" Lecrae shouts to the world that money
is nothing. Next there's "Don't Waste Your Life" featuring UK emcee and
Reach Record hopeful Dwanye Tryumf. This song is beyond hype. Also,
"Don't Waste Your Life" will go down as a favorite.
Overall, Rebel lives up to its name throwing thought-provoking curveballs left and right at most everything we worship and hold dear in the word and pushes us all to answer that questions that we always ask ourselves when no one's around: "What's really worth fighting for?"
Here's a taste of Live Free, off Lecrae's REBEL:
REBEL Track Listing:
1. Rebel Intro
2. Don't Waste Your Life ft. Cam, Dwayne Tryumf
3. Go Hard ft. Tedashii
4. Identity ft. Da' T.R.U.T.H., JR
5. Indwelling Sin
6. Breathin' To Death
7. Truth
8. Desperate ft. Cam
9. Change
10. Fall Back ft. Trip Lee
11. Live Free ft. Sho Baraka, Jai
12. Got Paper
13. I'm A Saint
14. Bride, The
15. Beautiful Feet ft. Dawntoya
